Recent Events on History of the Cell Phone

One of the most important years in cell phone evolution. The Cellular Technology Industry Association is created and helps to make the industry into an empire. One of its biggest contributions is when it helped create TDMA phone technology, the most evolved cell phone yet. It becomes available to the public in 1991.

The first cellular phones to be created were very large and bulky. This made them difficult to carry around. The first cell phone came to the market in 1984 from Motorola and weighed 2 pounds. It was a DynaTac 8000X which was selling for $3, 995.

Dr. Martin Cooper invents the first personal handset while working for Motorola. He takes his new invention, the Motorola Dyna-Tac., to New York City and shows it to the public. His is credited with being the first person to make a call on a portable mobile-phone.

The first real car phones, not car radios, come into play accross the United States. Although, the system is still using push-to-talk phones, it is an improved version that acctually works. However, the units are big and bulky, and require a personal radio operator to switch the calls. A simular system appeared in Sweden a few years earlier.

The FCC authorizes the widespread use of many separate radio channels to other carriers. They are know as Radio Common Carriers (RCC) and are the first link between mobile phones and the telephone, rather than just radio to radio. The RCC's are the first step toward the cellular phone industry, which is were designed more for profit than for the general public.

AT&T comes out with the first radio-car-phones that can be used only on the highway between New York and Boston; they are known as push-to-talk phones. The system operates at frequencies of about 35 to 44 MHz, but once again there is a massive amount of interference in the system. AT&T declares the project a failure.

The first mobile-radio-telephone service is established in St. Louis, Miss. The system is comprised of six channels that add up to 150 MHz. The project is approved by the FCC, but due to massive interference, the equipment barely works.

1940's- By now, the mobile radios are able to operate at 30 to 40 MHz and become much more common between police departments, and the wealthy. Several private companies and organizations begin using these same radios for personal gain.

The Police Department in Detroit, Mich. begins installing mobile radios, operating around 2 MHz, in their squad cars. They encounter many problems such as overcrowding on the channels and terrible interference.